by Jeriah Hildwine
Political art is at home in Chicago, but this is sometimes a risky proposition. Consider Frederick Holland's painfully didactic American Blend, from last year's Consuming War at the Hyde Park Art Center.
Some of the work in that show was quite good; I suspect that the phenomenon of ham-handed propaganda interspersed with other, more subtle works is something of a trend in group shows of political art.
Much better is the current show of politically-oriented work at
Packer-Schopf Gallery, Allegiance by Jerry Bleem. I reviewed the show
following its opening reception, and last weekend
attended a coffee reception (you can read my snack report here) and
artist's talk by Jerry Bleem. Bleem's work can be superficially read
as either blandly patriotic or impotently dissenting, but both such
reads equally miss the point of what Bleem is doing. The nominal
desecration of the flag that Bleem performs by shredding and then
crocheting American flags into new forms is in fact a meditative act of
contemplation. Each loop Bleem makes is an act of consideration, of
pondering the meaning of this symbol and its significance to him, and
to us, as individual Americans.
In his artist's talk Sunday afternoon, Bleem said, "I am not interested
in joining the ranks of artists who are making a political statement.
I am interested in joining the ranks of artists who are saying, 'We
need to be thinking about this.'" Regarding the extremely laborious
process and the investment of time, he said that this investment's
evidence in the work says, "I spent a lot of time thinking about this;
you should think about this, too." Amen. While I won't say that
Bleem's work has massively reconfigured my thinking about the flag, it
is certainly clear evidence that Bleem himself has done some real
contemplation here. And that, prolonged contemplation rather than
jingoistic reactionary protest, is when political art can transcend
mere propaganda.
Bleem mentioned in his artist's talk his use of studio assistants to do
some of his crocheting, or at least some of the prep work, and it is
tempting here to spin some fancy rhetoric about the outsourcing of
meditation, perhaps with a tie-in to the Medieval Catholic sale of
indulgences. It would make for entertaining rhetoric, but it would be
intellectually dishonest: have no doubt, even with a bit of help,
Bleem has more than done his time.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Tags: Allegiance, American Blend, Frederick Holland, Jeriah Hildwine, Jerry Bleem, Packer-Schopf Gallery
